Prison ordered for sex abuse, photos, videos

ADRIAN — Saying an Onsted man’s behavior that led to sex abuse and child pornography charges was escalating, a Lenawee County judge on Friday sent him to prison for nine to 15 years.

Joseph Douglas Mukensturm’s attorney and relatives asked Lenawee County Circuit Judge Anna Marie Anzalone to show leniency in sentencing him on the third-degree criminal sexual conduct and possession of child sexually abusive material charges to which he pleaded guilty in December. Sentencing guidelines calculated by the circuit court probation department and confirmed by Anzalone after a rare fact-finding hearing Friday called for the minimum sentence to be in the range of three years and nine months to six years and three months in prison.

Mukensturm, 32, already was shown leniency through a plea agreement that dismissed a first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge that carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison, Lenawee County Assistant Prosecutor Angie Borders argued. She said she jury would have convicted him of the original charges but she didn’t take the case to trial because the girl in the abuse case didn’t want Mukensturm to be in prison that long.

“I haven’t had a case this good in a long time,” Borders told the court.

Along with dismissing the first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge and its maximum sentence of up to life in prison, the plea agreement dismissed a child sexually abusive activity charge, another possession of child sexually abusive material charge and two counts of using a computer to commit a crime in the child pornography case.

There was disagreement on whether the plea agreement included Mukensturm admitting to the acts that led to all of the charges for sentencing purposes. Borders said it did while Mukensturm’s attorney, Peter Samouris of Lansing, said he wasn’t clear on if it was included in the taking of the plea.

Anzalone said her copy of the transcript from the hearing where the plea was entered started after the terms of the plea agreement were placed on the record but that requiring an admission to all of the charges is a standard term of a guilty plea.

Samouris challenged the guidelines computation, saying one of the offense variables regarding the number of crimes against a person should have been reduced by 15 points, which would have lowered the minimum sentence into a range of two and a half to five years. He raised the objection at Mukensturm’s original sentencing date Feb. 1, and Anzalone agreed to schedule a hearing on how to score that variable for Friday.

Borders called the police officer who investigated the cases, Sgt. Tim Ryan of the Cambridge Township Police Department, to testify about what the investigation revealed. Ryan said when he and others, including a Child Protective Services worker, first interviewed the girl in the abuse case, “her initial words were, ‘He raped me.’ ”

She was 12 at the time of the abuse and 13 when interviewed, Ryan said.

The girl described how Mukensturm had sex with her and told her, “This is what a 30-year-old can do.”

Mukensturm admitted to removing his and her pants, Ryan said, but said he did that to show the girl why it wouldn’t be good for a 30-year-old to have sex with a 12-year-old.

Ryan said there was a concurrent investigation into allegations Mukensturm had taken photos or videos of underage girls. A search warrant of Mukensturm’s home led to the seizure of two laptops, a video camera and cellphones.

Analysis by a Michigan State Police crime lab of the electronics revealed 70 photos of another girl and four videos, Ryan said. One video appeared to have been shot from outside a bedroom window and another from in a clothes basket placed in a bathroom. The video from the bathroom showed three underage girls in varying stages of undress, and Mukensturm could be seen placing the camera and picking it up.

Anzalone found that Mukensturm’s behavior was part of a pattern of felonious criminal activity involving three or more crimes against a person and kept the sentencing guidelines as they were originally calculated.

Samouris and Anzalone each noted that several letters were sent to Anzalone on Mukensturm’s behalf, including from the the girl in the abuse case and her mother. Samouris said he doesn’t think the girl’s mother is in denial about what happened.

“In her letter, she seems like a reasonable person,” he said.

Samouris said the girl and her mother only wanted Anzalone to stay within the guidelines. He said sentencing Mukensturm to the high end of the guidelines range would negatively affect the girl and how she thinks about Mukensturm “because only the worst of the worst get the max.”

He said Mukensturm was disgusted and saddened by his behavior but he wasn’t “grooming” victims or cruel or sadistic to the girls.

The mother of the girl in the abuse case asked Anzalone to think about how the sentence would affect her daughter.

“She knows that he messed up. She knows he needs help,” she said.

She said Mukensturm should be away from the girls until they are ready to see him again.

Borders told the court it is because of the girl’s feelings of sympathy toward Mukensturm that she agreed to a plea deal with less prison time.

“I hope (the victim’s mother) goes home and tells (the girl) because of her he got less prison time — years and years and years less,” Borders said.

The sentencing guidelines are advisory, Anzalone said, before issuing her sentence. She said she reviewed the letters, which showed “great sympathy” for Mukensturm. She said that very often people who are charged with these kinds of offenses have no criminal background, which was the case with Mukensturm.

“That doesn’t negate the fact that this horrific incident occurred,” she said.

She said she appreciated the insight Samouris provided in his sentencing brief, but said “there is a strong need to protect society.”

“Based on the information I received, your behavior was escalating,” she told Mukensturm.

Of the victim, Anzalone said being raped by a man she trusted “will be in the back of her head the rest of her life.”

Along with the nine to 15 years on the third-degree criminal sexual conduct charge — 15 years is the maximum allowed under state law — she sentenced Mukensturm to serve 17 to 48 months on the possession of child sexually abusive material charge. The sentences will run concurrently.

She gave him credit for 274 days already served in jail, ordered him to pay $456 in court costs.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.